Tuesday, May 13, 2014

One Lap by the Numbers

I just wanted to share a few numbers about our One Lap of America effort.  We traveled 4336 miles, a little short of our expected distance.  When we lost the day after running at Memphis we were not able to run at the NOLA (New Orleans) Motorsports Park two roadcourse events or the two events in Mobile, Alabama at the asphalt circle track.  With those miles included we would have completed close to 5,000 miles.  The route book calls it a 3323 mile long event, plus another 1200 miles to South Bend and back, plus miles on the tracks and back and forth to motels, etc.

By the numbers--one millimeter of clearance on the PoorVette
front tire, a 944 Porsche with a Corvette engine 
On the fuel mileage front, we only achieved 16.64 miles to the gallon compared to last year at 17.29 mpg.  One of the reasons for less miles per gallon is that we started popping out of 6th gear after leaving New Jersey.  With some 1700 miles left to go, all the highway miles would have to be in 5th gear.  Another thing that holds down the mileage is the track miles are probably averaging about 6 mpg. and while on the road we were towing a tag-a-long trailer carrying tools, spare parts and spare tires.  Not to mention that the engine is a little modified.  In total we spent $996 on fuel and $118.58 on tolls.  The highest price paid for hi test gas was in Dawsonville, Georgia at $419.9 and the lowest was in Alabama for $3.659 for an average price of $3.829.  One of the numbers that was most impressive was the VW Jetta TDI (turbo diesel injected) which averaged 43 mpg for the trip.

Our longest transits were day one at 641 miles from Tire Rack to Grissom Air Force Base, to the National Corvette Museum, then to Memphis Tennessee in the same day.  The overall longest was on Tuesday when we started in Dawsonville, Georgia, completed 2 events at Atlanta Motorsports Park, drove 147 miles to the BMW Performance Center in Greer, South Carolina.  We then finished the day (and night) going 651 miles and ending up in Millville, New Jersey for a one day total of 798 miles.

One thing we didn't count but certainly noticed is the amazing number of road construction areas or the miles of orange barrels.  Another items too frequent to count was the potholes which are certainly more noticeable in a car with a tightened and lowered suspension.  I'm not sure that my wheels are still straight, but I don't know how we didn't damage
a tire on some of those holes.

Monday, May 12, 2014

We made it Home sweet Home!!

Third in Class
We were hoping to make it home on Saturday night and we did but with just minutes to spare. Actually pulled in the driveway at 11:57 pm after a 596 mile run from South Bend.  This morning we ran the Dry Skid Pad competition and then went inside The Tire Rack's massive warehouse to a banquet and awards presentation with the menu featuring steak.  The steak dinner was greatly appreciated after our culinary staple for the week consisted of mainly McDonalds due to the long transit drives and the desire to not spend much down time in a restaurant.  The real bonus was when the McDonalds or another fast food palace was part of or at least next to a gas station so we could fuel both the car and us at the same time so we could save time.  At the Banquet we received our award for 3 place in class.  Unfortunately there is no award for 23rd place overall, but we are pretty proud of that finish after missing 4 events on Monday with a bent  valve and 2 broken valve springs.  Our goal on leaving home to head for the event was a top 20 finish.  After we had our bent valve problem we reset our goal to finishing in the top half of the field.  That meant 26th or better.  After the 1st event at Gingerman we were in 28th place.  I placed 7th in the second Gingerman event and 12th in the Dry Skid Pad event bringing us up to 23rd overall.  With the problems we had that is a very satisfying finish.
Thanking my Transit Driving partner and those who helped us.

Don't forget we are still raising money for our charity, the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition. We still need a few hundred dollars to meet this years goal. For a donation of $10 or more we will place your name on a Pink Ribbon sticker on the car, or the name of someone you would like to honor or memorialize.  Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition helps women going through Breast Cancer as well as helping to fund mammograms and research. Help us meet our goal. Please make any checks out to Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition or PABCC and send to Jim Roberts 14 W. Main St. Mount Joy, Pa. 17552.  To donate with your credit card go to PBCC.me click on "get involved" and then "events" and it will show Jim's One Lap Adventure, please indicate it is for Jim's One Lap.  This event is really a lifetime experience and we felt is was a good way to leverage it to the benefit of the community by raising funds for this worthy charity.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

The Last Event--Day 8-- Dry Skid Pad--Good Finish

Reg Noble's car broke yesterday at Gingerman, pushing around dry skid pad
There is a car in there!
This is the last day of competition after a grueling week of long miles and little sleep.  At this point we have achieved our goal of the top half of the field.  The day presents both concern and opportunity.  We need to do well not to slip any positions but if we do real well we might gain another position or two.  When I finished my run, the announcer proclaimed "Jim Roberts is 1st in class, 1st overall", wow was that great to hear.  The only problem is that the field in inverted and the fastest cars were still to run.  My 1st held out for several cars, but then it started and we ended up slipping down the speed charts a bit.  The good news is we finished in 12th place for Dry Skid Pad and moved up 3 more positions overall.--
Picture of Reg Noble being pushed around Dry Skid Pad for a symbolic finish.  The other picture of the guys having fun doing donuts and burnouts after the competition was complete.  Most doing burnouts were those who had a trailer to haul their cars home from South Bend.

Gingerman/Mother Nature--A mixed bag

Trying to stay dry under the canopy
Gingerman Raceway near South Haven Michigan was a fun 2.14 mile 11 turn track near the eastern shore on Lake Michigan.  It had rained overnight and was still raining when the first half of the field ran which really held the times down.  It also had water sloshing around on the floor pan of the open, go kart like, Ariel Atom.  By the second half of the group, the rain stopped the wind kicked up and the back half was running on a dry track.  This really skewed the results with many of the front runners deep in the field and some of those farther back in overall standings at the front of the finishing order.  The afternoon wasn't quite a dramatic with the track not quite as wet for the start but still drying more as time went

Lining up to go on track
on.  My first run was in the wet and a bad finish of 38th place.  My second run there was still moisture in the track but a lot dryer than my first run and I was able to run down the car in front of me, make a pass and ended up with a very satisfying 7th place finish.  One note, turn ten was an off camber skid pad sized turn and had no grip and really felt like a skid pad exercise, which is bad since it leads to the long back straight and you want to be back on the throttle quickly.  Well, everyone had to deal with the same turn;^)

Picture note, here are some of Mid Ohio

Hey I goofed.  The pictures on my last post were pictures from Gingerman not Mid Ohio.  Here are a couple from Mid Ohio.  During the lunch break, non drivers were allowed to do parade laps at Mid Ohio.  I took Shane out and coached him through 3 laps.  His enthusiasm is really growing to start doing track days and really get into the sport.
Here are a couple of pictures from Mid Ohio.  The one is my buddies from Cincinnati, Gary Griessmann, JD White, Steve Barrett, my Transit Driver from 2012 and me.  Just a side note, the latch on the back door of their trailer failed and they lost their luggage.  That bright orange shirt represents a bargain buy in the middle of the night at Walmart to replace some of the clothing lost.  JD had some luck, later that day someone called that had found his luggage on the side of the road.  At this point Gary wasn't so lucky and probably won't be since he said he didn't have any ID on his bag.  When this happened they were already having bad luck when they hit a three foot long 4X4 hunk of wood on the highway transit from Atlanta to BMW and damaged two wheels on the car and had new wheels over nighted from Tire Rack to Anderson, South Carolina where they were stuck.
The second picture is of my Transit Driver Shane Lintner in the car after coming in from parade laps with the Mid Ohio tower in the background.

Day 6 at Mid Ohio

Mid Ohio is a beautiful track that hosts world class racing like Indy Car and the former American LeMans series .  It is a track that should be on every track day guy's bucket list.  I really need to go back for a track day.  When competing with One Lap you only get one lap to reconnaissance the track then your competition laps begin.  You really don't have the seat time to get really good at it in 4 laps.  The track is well maintained and is like a park setting and is very challenging with interesting corners and lots of elevation changes.  I posted  a 25 place finish in the morning and improved to a 17th place in the afternoon.  We were chipping away at the hole we were in from missing those four events on Monday.   From dropping to about 35th place we were now up to 29th.  Our goal on entering One Lap of America was a top 20 finish which is a challenge when competing with a lot of very  good drivers and awesome equipment.  After our engine problem, we reset our goal to the top half of the field.  In racing we call that finishing "above the fold".
When we leave Mid Ohio we head to DEI (Design Engineering Inc.)  for a checkpoint stop and some hospitality and dinner.  A very friendly group at DEI, thanks for everything.  Only 277 miles left from DEI to South Haven, Michigan for our next day's event at the Gingerman Raceway.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

If it's New Jersey it must be Wednesday!

If it's New Jersey it must be Wednesday.  Seriously you start to lose track of what day it is when you are getting in at 2 to 4 am in the morning, so you look at the route book to verify what day it is.
I thought I might do a good deal better at New Jersey since I get down there a couple of times a year.  I did just a little better than my average has been, getting a 20th in the morning on Thunderbolt and a 16th in the afternoon on Lightning.  I had a cheering section of several friends from the Lancaster County Corvette Club plus Scott's parents and Rich Opperman a track day friend from Collegeville.  Thank you Scott for spreading the word, it was nice having someone there to watch you and cheer you on.  I did have an exciting moment when I overcooked turn four on my recon lap and slid off the track sending up a big cloud of dust that everyone could see from the tower.  I made a quick off road recovery and was on my way again.  I have never run New Jersey on my street tires on my Vette, only race tires that have a little more grip.
After the Lightning run we packed up quickly to try to beat the drive time traffic around Philly, since we had 525 miles to go to get to Mid Ohio.  That didn't quite work but the route book direction gave us good directions and even though slow it wasn't as painful as it could have been.  Because of that drive time slow traffic we didn't get to Mid Ohio till about 11:30 but that was great compared to the last two nights.
BTW still raising money for the Pa. Breast Cancer Coalition.  Log on to PBCC.me to use your credit card to donate.  Thank you.
Day 4 was at the rather new Atlanta Motorsports Park near Dawsonville Georgia.  I have never seen a track with such amazing elevation changes.  This track is one of the new country club style road courses being built around the country.  With my engine just repaired I was probably a little conservative in my run but still came out with a 24th place of the first run and 21st on the second.  After finishing up at Atlanta we headed off to the BMW Performance Center in Greer, South Carolina near Spartanburg.  That leg of our transit was only 147 miles but after the event at BMW we had another 651 to go and didn't leave until 6:30 pm.  We arrived at the hotel about 4 am and got about 3 hours of sleep.
At the BMW event they provided with a box lunch so we didn't have to stop to eat that night.  I was a little worried about BMW's event since a portion of it is much like an autocross and I don't have ABS.  My goal was to get a clean run and not slide the tires--working to be smooth.  I had a great run and came in 13th, which was great since we probably lost 500-600 points not making 4 events on Monday in New Orleans and Mobile while repairing the engine.  Tomorrow would be New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Friday, May 9, 2014

The Rest of the Story

When we had our engine problem in Millington Tennessee near Memphis and ended up in the third auto parts store we finally came up with a name of a local mechanic who took our call on a Sunday late afternoon.  His name is Keith Taylor who has a one man shop called Accurate Auto Repair.  Keith talked with me on the phone and quizzed me on what we had already checked and mentioned other items to check.  After we finished the call and went back to working at the car, the counterman came out to the parking lot and said Keith called back and to send us out to his shop.  He had been there all day helping a friend work on his own car.

We followed the directions and found his shop.  As we were pulling up outside the garage he motioned us to pull right inside.  We got out of the car to meet Keith and he said let the car sit and come on back and have dinner with him and his wife before we got started. 

After eating we started on trying to diagnose our miss.  After checking a few items Keith was able to determine we had two dead cylinders and found two broken valve springs and a bent valve.  Knowing the cylinder head had to come off, it was time to call it a night and attack the job in the morning.  Keith's wife took us up to the nearby motel and Keith said he would pick us up in the morning.   The next morning after pulling the head off and confirming the problem we headed off to nearby Memphis to Comp Cams to get the valve springs and valve that we needed.  Off to the Chevy dealer for a head gasket.  After that we next visited a friend of Keith's at the local machine shop to fit the valve and install the valve and springs.  With all that we headed back to the shop to start reassembling everything.

Thanks to Keith we got everything back together, did a test drive and were able to head on down the road 450 miles to Atlanta Motorsports Park near Dawsonville, Georgia.  Actually we were headed to a motel near the track to get a little sleep, very little sleep since we didn't arrive at the motel until after 2 am.

Keith really went above and beyond in helping us get back on the road with One Lap of America.  Kudos also to my Transit Driver Shane for helping work on the car.  At one time Keith, Shane and I were all under the car muscling the exhaust back into place.  As it turned out we only lost one day of competition but it added up to four events and put us way behind our goal of a top 20 finish.  



Thursday, May 8, 2014

Day Two Partial update

I will try to get everyone caught up on the events of the week in the next couple of posts.  I already posted on the results of day one on a former post.  Day two was a bit of a disappointment in that I only finished in the 26th spot in the morning run and the afternoon run I had a 28th place finish.  I actually improved for the afternoon session despite hearing a major miss and having the engine popping and backfiring.  After trying to diagnose the car with several One Lappers helping  us we thought it was a coil pack or something electronic/sensor related by the sound of the engine.  I especially need to give a shout out to Amanda and Adam Hennessey and Mike Hickman who tried to help figure things out.  Unfortunately when you have a heavily modified engine along with an extensive computer tune all the numbers on a scan tool don't make a lot of sense.
In the paddock at Memphis International Raceway
Thinking the problem was a sensor or something mundane I decided to participate in the drag events taking it slow just to not lose the points.  The first drag event was pure Elapsed Time only and I was one of the slowest, trying not to hurt the engine. The second drag event was bracket drags.  On the bracket drags I put a pretty slow "dial in time" and actually advanced by beating someone at a fairly low speed and saved a lot of point versus getting a dnf (did not finish).
When the drags and everything else was finished at Memphis and the rest of the One Lappers were headed to New Orleans, we started going to auto parts stores trying to find a local "motorhead' who could help us figure out the problem and get things fixed.  We were batting zero after visiting 3 parts stores.  At the third store we decided to start probing some of the components out in the parking lot when the counterman came out having remembered the name of someone he thought might be able to help.
Since it is nearly One in the morning and I need to get some sleep, I will continue "The Rest of The Story" maybe tomorrow.  Check Back.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Just a little setback at One Lap

It has been a while since I have posted.  Suffice to say we have had an eventful couple of days.  I will try to give you the short version and fill in the details in later posts.  Our big problem came Sunday when I was into my second run at Memphis International Raceway and I was down on power and could hear popping and missing of the engine.  It turns out I had a bent valve and two broken valve springs.  The valve springs were the double springs so the second spring didn't let the valve drop and create any catastrophic failure.  This was probably the result of an overaggressive down shift resulting in over revving the engine. Once that was analyzed the head had to come off and a new valve and springs installed and everything reassembled.  We didn't get to run the 4 events on Monday at New Orleans or Mobile, Alabama so we lost point and fell down the score charts.  With the car back together late Monday we left for Atlanta Motorsports Park at 7:30 pm and only had 450 miles to go.  We got to the motel at 2 am and got a little sleep.

After Atlanta we traveled 147 miles to Greer, South Carolina to the BMW Performance Center for an event in the evening.  As each of us completed our run at BMW we loaded the cars as quickly as possible since we had another 650 miles to go to southern New Jersey before we could get to the motel.  If you do the math you can see we didn't get there till way late.  Shane and I got checked in at 4 am and got just a couple hours of sleep.  Several arrived after we did and got even less sleep.

That's all for tonight, I'll share more of the details in subsequent posts.  We run at Mid Ohio tomorrow and Gingerman in Michigan on Thursday.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Great Wet Skid Pad

Day one is in the books.  I had my best single finish with One Lap of America finishing 5th overall in the Wet Skid Pad Shootout at the Tire Rack facility in South Bend.  After South Bend we went to Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, Indiana for an autocross on the runways.  Not as good a result but about where I expected to place in 26th place.
After Grissom we headed south 290 miles for a check point stop and visit to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky.  When we finished in Bowling Green we still had 270 miles to Memphis Tennessee for two racecourse events and two drag strip events on Sunday morning.
We did stop to take a picture of the car and trailer in front of the Corvette Museum sign before hitting the highway.  Tomorrow after Memphis it's only 408 miles to New Orleans.  The only problem is we probably won't be leaving until 7 pm or so.
Check back tomorrow night? for more updates.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Registration and Tech Complete

We had a good trip west with a real mixed bag of weather.  A little sunny, a lot of cloudy and a few times with some very heavy downpours.

We made it to South Bend and have gone through registration and tech.  We also have had our drivers meeting where we were warned that we all have cars that are cleverly disguised as race cars.  Tomorrow we begin our competition, first with a wet skid pad shootout, then off to Grissom Air Force Base for a fast autocross on the runways.  Grissom is only 83 miles away but then its only 290 miles down to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky for a checkpoint stop and visit.  If that sounds like quite a day it doesn't end there, we finish the day in Memphis, Tennessee, about 269 miles southwest of the Corvette Museum.

There are some awesome cars here and they impress me more each year.  Every time I think about the Ariel Atom I just shake my head at the 3500 miles they are going to do in the open air.  Here is a picture of two cars that will probably finish at the top of the score sheets at the end of the week.  An Audi R8 with the Lamborghini V10 engine and a few modifications.  Sitting next to the Audi is a Nissan GTR with an incredible wing the could double as a swimming pool ladder and diving board.



The tire and brake package below belong to the Nissan GTR.  The tires are 335/30R20 all the way around and the brakes package are the carbon fiber rotor set up and probably cost more than a couple of my cars.

 Check back, hopefully I will have enough time to give you an update tomorrow.